[Sca-cooks] Chicken with cinnamon recipes

[Stefan li Rous]

Padraig o Connell asked:
>     And on a side note, been kicking around the idea of experimenting with
> making a cinnamon spiced chicken.   Anyone have any ideas on what other
> ingredients would complement the cinnamon ?

Well, I went to the chicken-msg file to see if there were any period
recipes using cinnamon. Well, I was barely into the file when I saw
this recipe:
> Chykens in Hocchee
> Curye on Inglysch p. 105 (Forme of Cury no. 36)
>
> Take chykens and scald hem. Take persel and sawge, with other erbes; take
> garlec & grapes, and stoppe the chikenus ful, and see them in gode broth,
> so that they may esely be boyled therinne. Messe hem & cast therto powdour
> dowce.
>
> 3 1/2 lb chicken   	3/4 oz = ~10 cloves garlic     	powder douce:
> 4 T parsley         	1/2 lb red grapes	                    1 t sugar
> 1 1/2 t sage        	2 10.5 oz cans conc. chicken 	  1/4 t mace
> 1 t marjoram		     broth + 2 cans water	              1/4 t cinnamon
> 1 3/4 t thyme
>
> Note that all herbs are fresh.
>
> Clean the chicken, chop parsley and sage fine then mix with herbs in a
> bowl. Herbs are fresh, measured chopped and packed down. Take leaves off
> the fresh marjoram and thyme and throw out the stems, remove as much stem
> from parsley as practical. Add garlic cloves whole, if very large halve.
> Add grapes, and thoroughly but gently mix with the herbs. Stuff the chicken
> with the herbs, garlic and grapes. Close the bird with a few toothpicks.
> Place chicken in pot with broth and cook on stove top over moderate heat
> 1/2 hour, turn over, another 1/4 hour (in covered pot). Serve on platter
> with powder douce sprinkled over.
> --
> David/Cariadoc

And shortly after that, a different type of dish:
> Pynade (Two Fifteenth Century, H279 Leche Vyaundez iii, 34/59a)
>
> Take Hony & gode pouder Gyngere, & Galyngale, & Canelle, Pouder pepir, &
> graynys of parys, & boyle y-fere; than take kyrnelys of Pynotys & caste
> ther-to; & take chyconys y-sothe, & hew hem in grece, & caste ther-to, & lat
> sothe y-fere; & then lat droppe ther-of on a knyf; & ghif it cleuyth & wexyth
> hard, it ys y-now; & than putte it on a chargere tyl it be cold, & mace
> lechys, & serue with other metys; & ghif thou wolt make it in spycery, then
> putte non chykonys ther-to.
>
> Modern Comments
> ===============
>
> This is almost candy.  Without the chicken, it _is_ candy.
>
> Edited Recipe, with Modern Instructions
> =======================================
>
> 4 T honey	1/8 tsp pepper
> 1/4 tsp ginger	1/8 tsp grains of paradise
> 1/8 tsp galingale	2 T pinolas
> 1 tsp cinnamon	2 boneless chicken breasts
>
> 1.  Brown pinolas.
> 2.  Grind grains of paradise.
> 3.  Boil all ingredients through grains of paradise.
> 4.  Add pinolas.
> 5.  Cook carefully until it sticks hard to a knife.
> 6.  Chill and serve.
>
> Enjoy!
> -- Angharad/Terry

And another:
> from _An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the Thirteeth Century_,
> translated by Charles Perr.
>
> Another Tabahajiyya (A37)
> Cut the meat up small and fry with oil and salt, and when it is brown,
> cooki ti until done with vinegar. Pound a handful of almonds or walnuts
> and thrown them on and boil a while. Take pomegranate juice and dissolve
> in it a lump of sugar to get ride of its tartness, and sprinkle with
> cinnamon.
>
> Anne-Marie's Pomegranite chicken:
> 3 chicken breasts, hacked to gobbets
> 1-2 T olive oil
> 1/2 tsp salt
>
> Salt the chicken chunks, and sautee in a hot skillet with the oil until
> almost done and just starting to brown. Meanwhile, make the sauce:
> 1/4 cup water
> 1/2 tsp cinnamon
> 1 T sugar
> 1/4 cup pomegranite syrup (from middle eastern grocers. If you can't find
> the syrup, you can use the juice, but boil it for a lot longer, and omit
> the water).
> Boil these together in a small sauce pan to blend and dissolve the sugar.
>
> When the chicken is almost done, throw on 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
> (cider vinegar works too), the boiled sauce, and 3 T of pounded almonds.
> Continue to simmer until the chicken has absorbed most of the liquid.
> Serve on a bed of cous cous. (recipe below).
>
> Soldier's Couscous (Kuskusu Fityani) (A55) [same source]
> The usual moistened cous cous is known by the whole world. The Fityani is
> the one where the meat is cooked with its vegetables, as is usual, and
> when it is done, take out the meat and the vegetables from the pot and
> put them to one side; strain the bones and rest from the broth and return
> the pot to the fire; when it has boiled, put in the cous cous cooked and
> rubbed with fat and leave it for a little on a reduced fire or the
> hearthstone until it takes in the poper amount of the sauce; then throw
> it on a platter and level it, put on top of it the cooked meat and
> vegetables, prinkle it with cinnamon and serve it. This is called Fityani
> in Marrakesh.
>
> Anne-Marie's version of Soldiers Cous Cous
> 2 cups quick cooking cous cous
> 1 can Swansons veggie broth and 1 can water
> 4 T butter
> 1/4 tsp cinnamon
> 1 tsp salt
>
> Bring the broth and water to a boil in a good heavy pot with a tight lid.
> Stir in the couscous and finish according to the directions on the box.
> You can also leave the covered pot on the stove, with the burner tunred
> off. In about 15 minutes, the water should be absorbed. Stir in the
> butter over low heat until it is melted. Fluff with a fork and sprinkle
> heavily with cinnamon.
>
> Enjoy!
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Anne-Marie Rousseau

And these three were just within the first fifteen percent of the
file. I'm sure you can find many others that you might like or
redactions you might like better. Guess I better stop before the list
folks lynch me for taking all the bandwidth.
--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****